N02451:171
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business…
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the country. : [One line from I Corinthians]Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the countrey. : [One line from I Corinthians]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet for D. Henchman, 1727
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Georgica Sacra. The SOWING Of the Field. › The Thorny Ground.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thirdly. Thorns in the Field, are they profitable? No, they are pernicious, if thy are prevailing there. Can you Feed on Thorns; or Build with Thorns; or, will Thorns be a lasting Fuel for you? No, you call them, as the Bible does, Grieving Thorns. And worldly Lusts, I pray, what are they good for? It is demanded, Rom. VI. 21. What Fruit have ye of those things? Oh! Be sensible, that Sin is good for nothing in the World. Its works are unfruitful ⟨p. 57⟩works of Darkness. Good! Nay, worldly Lusts are forever mischievous Things. They are justly styled, Foolish and Hurtful Lusts. They War against our Souls. Yea, O Man, If thou hadst not a Dead Soul within thee, the Desires of thy Flesh and of thy Mind there, would give thee as much Fiery Torment and Anguish as if so many Thorns were stuck into thee.
Fourthly; When the Thorns cover our Fields, 'tis our Sloth which is to be blamed for suffering of it. The Man dwells, At the sign of the Sluggards Field, who indulges them. I went by the Field of the Slothful, and lo, It was all overgrown with Thorns. And, What shall be said of the Heart which has Worldly Lusts permitted and prevailing in it? That Heart is, The Field of the slothful. When the Israelites allowed and savoured the Canaanites, and through' Idleness forbore the Extirpation of them, GOD said unto them; Josh. XXIII. 13. Know for a certainty, They shall be Thorns in your Eyes. This you may Know for a certainty; Men might, with the Blessing of GOD, very much Extirpate Worldly Lusts out of their Souls; Tis from their own slothfulness in the Business of Mortification, that these Things that should appear as Thorns in their Eyes, are so swarming in them.
Fourthly; When the Thorns cover our Fields, 'tis our Sloth which is to be blamed for suffering of it. The Man dwells, At the sign of the Sluggards Field, who indulges them. I went by the Field of the Slothful, and lo, It was all overgrown with Thorns. And, What shall be said of the Heart which has Worldly Lusts permitted and prevailing in it? That Heart is, The Field of the slothful. When the Israelites allowed and savoured the Canaanites, and thro' Idleness forbore the Extirpation of them, GOD said unto them; Jsh. XXIII. 13. Know for a certainty, They shall be Thorns in your Eyes. This you may Know for a certainty; Men might, with the Blessing of GOD, very much Extirpate Worldly Lusts out of their Souls; Tis from their own slothfulness in the Business of Mortification, that these Things that should appear as Thorns in their Eyes, are so swarming in them.